Sushma was consulted on Lok Sabha secy general

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had consulted leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj before deciding to grant one-year extension to Lok Sabha secretary general TK Vishwanathan, sources familiar with the developments said on Thursday.

Swaraj had on August 16 met the Speaker at her residence, where the consultation took place for 45 minutes, they said.

Swaraj had written to the Speaker on August 30, complaining that she did not hold a "formal" meeting before taking the decision to grant extension to Vishwanathan.

About Swaraj's insistence for a joint meeting involving the Speaker, leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and herself, the sources said there is no rule for having a committee while appointing the secretary general. For appointment to this post, there are three ways — promotion, deputation and contract, they added.

On Swaraj's complaint of stagnation among officers from the Lok Sabha secretariat, the sources said 184 officers got promotion since Kumar became the Speaker. Of them, 153 are gazetted officers; 514 officers got 'time scale promotion' — an employee gets financial benefit of the next higher scale, even when there is no vacancy.